#HowToAuthor: Book Deals & Marketing

To use (or not to use) a pen name

What's in a name? A lot, actually. Your name is part of your brand, and as you're looking to build your author platform, the name you choose to publish under becomes important. For many, it's a no brainer--the name you're born with (or married into) is what you want to use, end of story. But many of us have good reasons to use a pen name--I use one. Are you shocked? Haha.

Reasons you might want to one:

~ You have a super common name, ie: Jane Smith, or the same name as a famous person, ala Michael Jordan

~ OR, worse yet, you have the same or wayyyy too similar name as an already published/well-known author

~ You have a name that is difficult to spell/pronounce and you aren't attached to it

~ You want to completely divorce your "IRL" and/or professional identity from your author identity

~ Per any of the above reasons, you want to have a "fresh" social media slate of options--Twitter handle, URL, etc. that aren't already taken by people with the same/similar names

~ You simply want your author name to sound cooler

~ Sometimes, the need may arise to use a pen name because your first book(s) didn't sell well and you want to start fresh. Or you want to write in a vastly different genre.

Personally, I have a unique name but my last name can be tricky (it's Italian!), and I simply wanted a snazzy, fresh YA author name. Alexa is my real first name, Donne is a different family name from the one I legally have, and there were clean Google results & all the social media handles available for it.

This all said, the decision to not use your real name--particularly your last name--can be incredibly loaded, and it's very personal. Was I throwing aside and erasing my cultural identity by choosing not to use my Italian "difficult" last name? Well, for me... I'm barely Italian. The English, Scottish and Irish influences are stronger than the Italian in my case. However, for many writers, their cultural identity is key to who they are, and they don't want to erase that. And I don't think they should. A name being hard to spell or pronounce is NOT a good, dominant reason to use a pen name. Follow your heart, and your gut!